Electrically conductive conjugated polymers show excellent charge transport properties making them suitable materials for nanostructured devices. Many conjugated polymers have been fabricated into devices such as organic photovoltaics, light emitting diodes and field-effect transistors. The low band gap nature of some conjugated polymers allows them to be very efficient electron donors due to how well they absorb visible and NIR light, generate excitons and subsequently transfer the charge to an electron acceptor, such as a C60 derivative.
Conjugated polymers are readily soluble in organic solvents and concomitantly insoluble in aqueous media. Such insolubility has limited application of conjugated polymer systems to a variety of applications requiring compatibility with aqueous solvents and/or phases.